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Anand Wins Again and Has Commanding Lead at World Championship

The world championship match in Bonn, Germany, may not be over, but it is certainly not looking good for the challenger, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Viswanathan Anand of India, the world champion, won his third game of the match yesterday and now leads the best-of12 contest 4.5 to 1.5. More information about the match and the players is on the match Web site.

Anand won two previous games as Black, but yesterday he won with White, and once again he uncorked a novelty in a well-known opening. Through the first eight moves, the position was one that has been played a number of times, but Anand’s 9 h3 (the sort of move one can almost picture a beginner making) threatened to trap Kramnik’s queen. Kramnik was not in any real danger, but he had to play carefully, which he did up through move 17. Then he sacrificed a pawn for the initative, only the initiative proved to be fleeting and Black found himself defending a pawn down endgame. Either out of lack of patience, or frustration, or oversight, Kramnik sacrificed a second pawn to try to gain attacking chances, but Anand defended very well and soon consolidated his position. He then pushed through one of his pawns and promoted it to a queen, whereupon Kramnik resigned.

When this match began, most experts predicted that it would be closely contested. Instead, it has turned into a rout as Anand is clearly better prepared and in better form. The shortness of the match is part of the problem. World championship matches used to routinely be 24 games, which meant that if one player got into a hole like Kramnik is in, he had a chance to turn things around. But matches started getting shorter in the 1990s, starting with the 1993 match between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short, which was 20 games. That was followed by Kasparov-Anand (1995; 16 games), Kasparov-Kramnik (2000; 16 games), Kramnik-Peter Leko (2004; 14 games) and then finally by Kramnik-Veselin Topalov (2006; 12 games).

At this point, with only a maximum of six games left to play, Kramnik would probably find some solace in just winning a game and narrowing the final score. Game 7 is Thursday.

Mr. Kramnik is being outplayed. He trails so badly in the match that his only hope is to abandon his usual cautious approach and deliberately venture into sharp lines of play which can force wins. Unfortunately, this is a zone owned by Anand. Vladimir almost needs to run the table in the remaining matches and current form indicates that this would be nearly impossible. Hopefully the desperation chess which we are about to witness will lead to some entertaining and lively games, since draws are really no longer acceptable for Kramnik.

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In its 1,500-year history, chess has imbedded itself in the world's culture and vocabulary. Ideas, terms and images from the game have long been used as proxies for intelligence and complexity. But chess is more than a diversion. Thousands worldwide play professionally or earn a living by teaching it to children. The Internet has transformed the game, making it easy for players anywhere to find an opponent day or night. Chess computers, originally developed to test the bounds of artificial intelligence, now play better than grandmasters. This blog will cover tournaments and events, trends and developments. Reader comments and questions will be more than welcome.

With an easy draw in the penultimate round, Hikaru Nakamura preserved his lead, while Viswanathan Anand, the world champion, was lucky to escape with a draw against a 16-year-old grandmaster. Read more…